Professional baseball was played at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull for nearly a century. The Detroit Tigers played their final game in 1999 and it took 10 years for the city to complete its demolition. In just 5 years, the weeds and trash had grown so thick that few signs remained of the once manicured lawn cherished by so many metro-Detroiters.

The last remaining section of Tiger Stadium, just weeks before its demolition in 2009–ten years after the Tigers final game here. (Photo credit: Kevin Walsh)

In 2010, after hearing of a pickup game of catch after Ernie Harwell’s funeral, Tom Derry visited The Corner and was so moved by its abandonment that he encouraged his friends to bring their mowers, rakes and trash bags and they began a five year journey to return the field to baseball fans.

We visit with University of Detroit professor Jason Roche whose documentary on Derry and The Navin Field Grounds Crew, Stealing Home, won the audience award at the 2014 Freep Film Festival. We discuss the new plans for the field and the controversy of removing the natural grass.